Jacob is facing off against the dragon and boy is he sweating buckets.
The dragon then looks away at Jacob, and looks around at it's surroundings.
While still looking away "You still haven't answered me boy. What is it that you want?"
"No-nothing really, must have...took a wrong turn, you know, all these paths look the same so.....and I'm kinda claustrophobic... so I'll just..." Jacob attempts to leave as he sprouts utter nonsense at the dragon.
The dragon seemingly ignoring the nervous Jacob "Well, it is a bit cramped in here, let's take this outside shall we?"
The dragon taps the ground with one of it's claws and suddenly, Jacob and the dragon reappear on open grounds with no mountain or hill in sight.
"Where did you take us?"
"My battlegrounds."
"Battlegrounds?" Jacob looks around and sees nothing more than a dark barren ground and pitch black night sky, with the only source of light being a red sun.
He then looks at the dragon that is in the distance and then looks up at the 600 meter tall dragon.
'That is one big dragon. I mean most dragons in my world are judged based on size, I've heard the biggest dragon ever encountered was a sea dragon that was 200 meters big. A dragon this big is definitely disaster class.' Jacob thinks this as he backs away.
The dragon solely focuses it's gaze on Jacob. 'The boy has no mana, odd, even though that's the case I sense incredible energy.....wait...it can't be...That is aether..but how?....how can this boy possess a feat only capable of being done by gods.' The dragon widens it's eyes due to the shock of witnessing Jacob having aether circulating in his body.
'Alright Jacob, you can do this...I hope.' He enters an offensive stance as he summons his sword.
'It seems he is about to attack.'
'Sage mode X100.' Jacob's hair rises once more as his body is enveloped in a transparent aura.
Jacob lunges at an explosive speed and instantly appears above the dragon's massive head. Jacob swings his sword, striking with great force causing the dragon's head to crash to the ground.
'Impressive strength.' The dragon thinks as it nonchalantly raises it's head once more.
Jacob lands on the dragon's head and leaps into the air instantaneously.
'Damn, my attack had barely any effect. It seems I'll have to go all out.'
Jacob enters into a traditional sword stance. 'Sage mode X500.' As Jacob activates his multiplier technique, his body releases an intense air pressure.
'Quite the strength, maybe he could....be the one.' The dragon then proceeds to roar.
The dragon's roar generates a force so great it blows Jacob away along with massive chunks of the ground.
Jacob falls at a far off distance. 'Man, it generated all that power from a shockwave.'
Jacob taps on the ground. 'Strange, this ground feels way coarser than usual.'
The dragon notices the boy's actions. "It is tougher."
"What?" Jacob looks up at the dragon as he gets up and dusts himself off.
"The ground...it's a 177 times tougher to be exact. It makes for a more stable battleground don't you think?"
"Uhm, I guess." 'Man this is so trippy, A freaking dragon is talking to me so casually in the middle of a fight, you'd think things would be a bit more intense.'
The dragon opens it's massive jaw and emits of red energy at Jacob.
Jacob narrowly dodges the attack and lands on his side. "The hell!? Don't dragon's breathe fire?".
"They do." The dragon then proceeds to breathe out a flame so massive, it is as if the fire was created by a million flamethrowers.
"OH..MY...GOD!" Jacob quickly summons his sword and grips the handle for dear life. He then quickly inserts some of his aether into the sword. "Elemental burst: Air."
Jacob then swings his sword with great force slicing the raging flame in half creating a gap large enough for Jacob to pass through.
Taking advantage of the opening, Jacob leaps through the gap with neck break speed.
'Here he comes.' The dragon grins.
'Why is it grinning?' Jacob asks himself as he approaches the dragon at a frightening pace.
The dragon sweeps at Jacob with one of it's claws, but Jacob narrowly dodges the sweep by changing his trajectory and side flipping over it.
'The boy used the air as a foothold to dodge my attack.'
'Damn it's fast, but then, dragon's are known for their incredible strength and.....magic power.'
Jacob's thoughts are temporarily stalled as he sees a familiar massive red crest form beneath the dragon's feet.
'No.' is the only thought that passes through Jacob's head.
"Draconic Art."
'Draconic art?' Jacob repeats the words to himself as he lands on the ground.
"Flames of the aegis."
5 medium sized crests compared to the massive red crest appears above and slight behind the dragon's head intensifying the domineering aura the dragon already possessed.
"Draconic art...what is that?"
The dragon narrows it eyes as it focuses on the slightly trembling Jacob.
'Hmm, I haven't had guests for quite the while since those spirits sealed me here. I might as well entertain him and who knows I might gain something from this.'
The dragon having come to a conclusion the dragon proceeds to speak "Do you know the term spirit arts? The technique used by the highest class of magic users of you...humans as well as the supernatural beings."
"Yeah."
"Do you know of the term X rank?"
"X rank?"
"Do you know of the Emperial rank?"
"Yeah, it's the highest ranking in the ranking system, there's Rank F, E, D, C, B, A, AA, AAA, S, SS, SSS, LEGEND and EMPERIAL."
"The Emperial rank consists of beings with capable of eradicating nations namely High elves, Demon lords, Heroes, and even the Emperials, gotta say quite the original name. However the X ranked far surpass the power of the Emperial ranked."
"Why is that?" Jacob asks as he continuously backs away from the dragon's range of fire.
"Afraid of a surprise attack are we, do not be alarmed, It has been a long time since I've had a guest, and even a longer while talking to someone so freely."
"I see." Jacob still continues to back away regardless.
"Anyways, to answer your question, X rank is a title given to beings that are considered to be world, galactic,universal and even mutiversal threats. And that's due to two reasons. The first one being that they have their own unique mystic art and cannot be copied unlike the spirit arts."
"And the second one?"
"Though it differs amongst races they possess incredible powers that pose a threat to the balance of the universe itself. I say this to you with full confidence, that even the weakest amongst the X ranks is capable of destroying your world in a matter of minutes or less."
"I see, then why don't they?"
"As all other beings, the X rank have their own set of rules which you don't need to know of...yet."
"Wait...you said it differs amongst races."
"Yes I did, while an X ranked is an opponent not to be trifled with, their powers, potential and even techniques differ amongst the races. Currently there are seven X ranked races them being The elder dragons from the dragons, the devils from the demons, the spirits from the supernaturals, the sages from the humans, the oni also originally from the demon race, the gods from the celestials, and finally the ancients from....well, the creator."
"Wow."
"So you're an X rank."
"Indeed I am, but sadly I my power has been greatly depleted due to me having been sealed away for the last hundred years, I can't even tell how strong I am any more."
The dragon continues "Young boy, you're a sage aren't you?"
"Yeah."
"Then the question remains, do you think you can achieve X rank?"
"Most definitely." Jacob gives the dragon a resolute gaze.
"Then let's test that determination of yours?"
"Wait...what?" Jacob's gaze turns into one of panic.
A massive red fireball forms out of one of the crests, ground particles then rise due to the fireball's gravitational pull.
'O..Kay, not good.' Jacob enters into his traditional sword stance. " Sage Art: Elemental Overburst."
Jacob's blade gets enveloped by a green flame.
'Elemental Overburst, it's a technique I developed that allows me to freely utilize all the elements contained within my sword simultaneously, but it does require far more energy than Elemental Burst which only utilizes on element at a time.'
The flame on Jacob's blade increases greatly in size. 'By adding wind to the flames, I can boost the longevity of the flames.' Jacob then readies himself for the attack.
'It seems he is prepared.'
"Flame of the Aegis: Grand Fireball." the already massive fireball swells even more.
They both then shout in unison "FIRE!!!"
The fireball launches from the crest, incinerating the surface of the ground it covers, while Jacob swings his with great force, generating a flame slice as big as colossal giant (60 meters). The two attacks collide creating a nuke like explosion which repels both Jacob and the dragon.
Jacob rising from the rubble he was trapped in due to the aftermath of the explosion, chuckles as he looks at the massive crater developed at the point if collision
'I didn't think the reverb effect would be this great, is that dragon really depleted if it's magic power? If so, then I'm in major trouble.'
"What a waste of energy." The dragon states with irritation evident in it's voice. "Tch, you're not even able to fully maximize the potency your current strength."
'Well for that I'd have to use the absolute constant technique, which would allow me 100% utilization of my strength.'
Jacob gets up only to be greeted by the lovely sight of five fireball's that are all 3 times larger than the previous one.
'Damn, the last one took a lot out of me, and I have to face off against five bigger ones.'
"Wow, even with your apparent handicap, the difference in our strength is so clear."
"I'm glad you understand that."
"However, I ain't going down so easily." He grabs his sword with his left and clenches his right fist tightly.
'Thats right, allocate all your energy into your right arm. I'll only have this one shot. Sage art: Rhythmic Counter."
"FIRE!!" The dragon shouts as the fireballs attacks Jacob. Jacob lunges once more at an explosive speed, but instead of meeting the fireballs head on, he proceeded to dodge all of the fireballs with extreme precision and then finally landed his punch on the dragon's massive abdomen causing the dragon to cough out blood and actually get blown away by the attack.
'Inspite of my size and even with mana reinforcement the blow was still excruciating.'
'Thats right, with my multiplier technique, I can deliver up to a trillion tonnes of punching strength but the greater strength the more drain to my energy and stamina.' Jacob thinks as he breathes heavily.
'Damn, I'm already out of steam.'
"Impressive attack, human." The dragon gets back up.
"You truly are remarkable, but as you can see your most powerful attack only managed to scathe me."
"Even though I am greatly handicapped, zi didn't think for one second you'd be able to land a solid blow. Even more impressive it's your incredible speed and strength which easily put you at the peak of the legend rank."
Jacob doesn't respond as he tries to recover some energy by reabsorbing aether in the surroundings.
'What...he is....absorbing aether? Truly incredible.
"You have gained my respect, and as a gift, Let me show you a sample of my once mighty power."
As the dragon rises into the air dark clouds swirl in the night sky, all carrying arcs of red lightning.
'Its focusing a tremendous amount of mana.'
The dragon then releases an immense pressure restraining Jacob in one place.
'Damn, due to my exhausted state, Its really difficult to resist it's mana pressure.'
"Draconic art: Thunderous Overdrive"
At the oncoming strike, restrained as he was Jacob tries to dodge the streaks of red lightning coming his way. As he is focused on dodging the streaks of lightning a barrage of fireballs come his way forcing him up in the air. The streaks of lightning then strike Jacob back to the ground and the fireballs collide with Jacob before he crashed to the ground which causes another nuke like explosion.
As the dust clears, with the dragon hovering in the air, Jacob's severely bruised and battered body is shown on top of the rubble made by the explosion, with his top clothing completely blown off revealing the severe bruises he received. As the dragon looks on, Jacob's body just lays there without twitching in the slightest, completely vulnerable to any attack that may follow.